The disclosure relates generally to turbine systems, and more particularly, to cooling circuits for an airfoil.
Gas turbine systems are one example of turbomachines widely utilized in fields such as power generation. A conventional gas turbine system includes a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. During operation of a gas turbine system, various components in the system, such as turbine blades and nozzle airfoils, are subjected to high temperature flows, which can cause the components to fail. Since higher temperature flows generally result in increased performance, efficiency, and power output of a gas turbine system, it is advantageous to cool the components that are subjected to high temperature flows to allow the gas turbine system to operate at increased temperatures.
A blade typically contains an intricate maze of internal cooling passages. Coolant provided by, for example, a compressor of a gas turbine system, may be passed through and out of the cooling passages to cool various portions of the blade. Cooling circuits formed by one or more cooling passages in a blade may include, for example, internal near wall cooling circuits, internal central cooling circuits, tip cooling circuits, and cooling circuits adjacent the leading and trailing edges of the blade.